Name is Kevin, new to this site and to collecting. My collection is small but it's a start, I would have posted a pic here asking what a few of my pieces condition/grade are but I can't seem to get a good shot with my cell phone or dslr (what a shock lol) my question is, is there a good USB microscope others have used that they would recommend ?

My mom gave me a bundle of coins when she found out i started collecting, among them was a nice 1880 silver 5 cents, I see there's variations of this coin but I don't know what to look for on the obverse..

any help would be appreciated and i look forward to learning more, thanks everyone.

Hi Kevin-Welcome to the world of coin collecting.I would suggest buying a Charlton Catalogue of Canadian Coins Volume 1.It contains pictures of the different varietiesof Victorian coins plus lots of other usefulinformation.Feel free to ask any questions you may haveas there is someone here who can probably help.

As suggested earlier in this thread, pick up a copy of the annual Charlton or Haxby annual coin guide. Great info, goo (sometimes) photos, and what to look for in the variety. You can't go by any annual price guide or Trends, as those given are no where what you could actually sell it to someone for ... 60-70% for Trends and about the same for the guides, but some may be down to 50%. Welcome to the site .. lots of knowledge here.

awesome thanks for the reply, I have spent some time looking at these charlton books and subsequently ordered 5 different titles online including the one you had suggested. I'm still looking for a cheap but effective microscope, i know you get what you pay for though.

I'm reading alot about the NGC here guys, as a novice collector with no real experience, I'm glad I didn't sign up for more than a free membership with them.

I've got an old Digital Blue QX-5 video scope for viewing coins on the computer screen and/or sending them to friends. My scope for the desk is an old Orion 10/30X and I love it .. but it doesn't have a built-in light. I use 2 desk lamps shown from different directions to eliminate shadows. If you are a novice collector, don't feel that you have to send coins into a 3rd party grader .. study and go to shows and attend seminars to learn how to grade. At shows, you can look at 100's of coins to see how TPG's grade their coins.